Chapter 229: Void
Bing Rong raised her head and looked at the sincere look on Huo Rong's face. She thought about it for a second and nodded, "Then I will go to visit him tomorrow or the day after that. After all, you just visited him."
"That's my sister!" Huo Rong cheered her up as she was happy that her sister was opening up.
"But anyways, what do you think about the girls gathered around him? I'm sure he at least likes a few of them; he just hasn't said anything because he doesn't seem to have any plan of making a move on them just now." Huo Rong looked at her seriously and asked.
Bing Rong thought about Shen Yuan as a sweet smile formed on her lips. "I'm content as long as I have a small place in his heart."
"Tsk, and here I thought you might have some problems with him courting other girls." Huo Rong shook her head as she leaned back on the chair.
"What about you? You seemed quite against it," Bing Rong curiously asked.
"Nah, I'm fine with it as long as he doesn't forget me. After all, he needs a bigger harem to sustain his cultivation base, and we might not be able to satisfy him once his cultivation base catches up with us," Huo Rong said as she had already considered this situation.
Bing Rong thought about it, and it seemed to make sense to her as well. "What you say is true; the only reason we can keep up with him is due to our high cultivation base, but once he reaches our level, we might not be able to satisfy him alone."
Huo Rong nodded her head. "Well, we will see what will happen in the future. For now, I think our disciples might be after him hehe."
Bing Rong felt her eye twitching. "Our situation is rather similar; aren't we also disciples of Master? And she is now in the harem hehe."
"Now that you mention it, she should come out within this week," Huo Rong said as she remembered their master.
Bing Rong nodded. "Shen Yuan will be quite happy about it as well."
Huo Rong lewdly smiled. "Heh, they will go wild in the night, I'm sure."
"Huo Rong! Don't speak so crass of our master," Bing Rong said as her face burned from embarrassment.
"What? Did I lie?" Huo Rong innocently asked.
Bing Rong just shook her head and decided to change the topic. "Anyways, how many women are around Shen Yuan now? We should look into their backgrounds beforehand."
"That's true, hmm let me think," Huo Rong grabbed her chin as she began thinking. "Han Qingyu—well, she is basically confirmed to be in the harem, just need Master to come out so he can ask about it with us. That leaves our disciples."
Bing Rong raised an eyebrow. "Did he let them become our disciples to gather his entire harem inside the family beforehand?"
Huo Rong chuckled. "Nah nah wait, I'm sure not all of our disciples should be on the list. Chen Yue, Ling Mei, Wan Ling, and Zhao Lian. Chen Yue and Wan Ling seem to be more likely candidates for now."
"We can't underestimate Ling Mei as well," Bing Rong said seriously.
Huo Rong agreed. "True, let's do a background check on all of them."
They continued talking as they soon got up and left to go look for Elder Luo Yan for help.
...
"Haah... finally done with this High Grade Tier 1 Sword," Shen Yuan stretched as he looked at the box filled with nearly a dozen swords.
[It turned out quite nicely; it's an exceptional sword even among other swords of similar rank,] Yue Lan said in admiration.
"Now I should rest; it's not good to work all the time," he said as he walked out and saw the moon illuminating the dark sky.
He appreciated the view for a moment before walking towards the Cherry Blossom Tree.
[You might take the entire day tomorrow to just forge a Peak Grade Tier 1 Sword; you need to improve your Blacksmithing Skills.]
Shen Yuan nodded as he went towards the chair and sat down beneath the Cherry Blossom Tree and looked at the sky.
"That is true, I'm not improving fast enough."
[You are still improving faster than the absolute vast majority of aspiring blacksmiths who take years to decades just to master creating a Tier 1 Treasure,] she consoled him as she didn't want to demotivate him.
"And why should I compare myself to those mediocre people? With my innate gifts alone, I should have been able to create Tier 3 treasure at least, but I have too many restrictions placed on me," he said with an absolute tone as he was at least confident in his bloodline if nothing else.
Yue Lan got silent as she didn't expect him to look at himself so strictly. For a moment, she didn't know what to say.
Shen Yuan also closed his eyes to rest, but what they both missed was the small runes forming on his chest as his bloodline stirred deep in his core; it seemed to bubble with excitement as Shen Yuan finally started to see himself for what he is truly worth.
He felt his mind becoming heavy as he fell asleep.
[Hmm? He fell asleep? This is abnormal,] Yue Lan thought as she tried to look through his body but couldn't find anything amiss as the bloodline was masking the entire situation.
...
"Shen…"
"...Yuan"
Faint voices echoed in the void, distant yet hauntingly familiar. He tried to hear, but the words remained fractured like shards of glass.
"He's… coming…"
The fragments of sound were drowned by a low, guttural hum that reverberated through the void.
"Move... fast..."
The broken voices faded, replaced by a deafening silence that pressed against him like the weight of countless stars.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity had passed, his eyes snapped open. The world before him was a bleak, infinite void.
The sky—or what remained of it—was fractured, colossal rifts tearing across the entire cosmos with swirling chaos.
Shards of what seemed like entire great planes hovered in the distance, glimmering with unnatural colors that pulsed like dying stars.
Worlds, broken and lifeless, floated amidst the rivers of fate, their surfaces scarred with ruins of civilizations.
Darkness seeped like ink from the gaping fissures in reality, forming immense black spheres that loomed ominously, pulsating with an eerie, malevolent light.
From them, tendrils of void-like substance cascaded downward, infecting the very source of all things: the Ultimate Origin Source.
Shen Yuan stood amidst the devastation, a jagged, blood-streaked sword clutched in his trembling hand.
The broken blade pulsed with an otherworldly power capable of bringing devastation even upon the Great Dao, seeming to convey the long, arduous battle it had fought with its master. Two words remained engraved on its handle: 'Crimson Devourer'.
His body was broken—nearly half of it seemed to be missing. His left arm was gone, his torso shredded, and yet he remained standing, looking at everything with anger so extreme it seemed to distort the Chaos.
From the distance, a monstrous roar tore through the chaos, primal and suffocating.
"DIIIIEEEE!!!"